Proposal Pointers in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage
A proposal to sell or lease a commercial property is a unique document and should be such. It needs to reflect the requirements of the client, the real estate market conditions, and some important strategies for the asset in its current condition. (NB – you can get our free real estate course here)
If you are going to chase and potentially win a reasonable volume of new business as a broker or an agent over time, you should consider your current proposal document and how it can be improved.
Get to the real facts ‘locally’ that will impact the property and its marketing and or negotiation. Provide some solid information to support your recommendations. Show the client that you have considered things in great depth.
As a general observation, most of the listing proposals produced by commercial agents and brokers today are ordinary and generic. They fail to tap into the real facts behind the client’s motivation and the opportunities in the current property market for the town or city. That general weakness will convert to an opportunity by those property specialists taking the extra steps of proposal creation and research.
Current Proposal?
Think about your current proposal plan and how you could improve it. You only have a few minutes with a client or prospect to show them your ideas and recommendations. Many issues must align to get an agreement on a property strategy or marketing process. So, your document must stand out as the ‘best of a bunch’; expect that the client will be interviewing a few other brokers and agents as they move to the final decision.
Here are some unusual ideas to help your next proposal structure and compilation:
- Research the property comprehensively – the depth of your research will help you with ideas, recommendations, and strategies.
- Create a story – many feature presentations can be ‘sold’ or ‘converted’ on the back of a relevant story from the location or another similar property.
- Understand the clients focus timing – there will be a critical date target that the customer wants to work to, and on that basis, you can put that time into your timeline of activities and marketing. Use a Gantt chart to display your stages of listing, marketing, and negotiation.
- Simplify your document – avoid ‘important’ reports that confuse and distract the client. Keep your proposal very straightforward and limited to less than 15 pages.
- Offer some location based marketing alternatives – you can market a property generically, or you can do so directly into the target market. Show the client how you will personally reach out into the target market of buyers or tenants. Tell the customer how you expect the target market to respond to your promptings and promotional strategies.
- Provide a question and answer process – as a particular part of your document; you can address individual issues and concerns that the client may have. There will be issues at the back of the customer’s mind when it comes to resolving the real estate challenge.
Engagement is critical to the results that you achieve with any property proposal. Look at the ways that you can engage with the client in a ‘tangible’ way; put sight, sound, and touch together to convert your property proposal quickly and efficiently.
